… But in a statement given to a different Politico reporter, former Vice President Dick Cheney harshly criticized Obama’s “low key response“:
As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of 9/11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.Cheney’s claim that the Obama administration’s response to the attempted airline bombing is “trying to pretend we are not at war” is especially hypocritical because one of the Bush administration’s first public comments on the 2001 attempted shoe bombing specifically called it a “law enforcement” issue. At a press conference five days after the incident, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld brushed off questions about Richard Reid’s failed bombing by saying, “That’s a matter that’s in the hands of the law enforcement people and not the Department of Defense.” “And I don’t have anything I would want to add,” said Rumsfeld…
I wish this man didn’t get to me like he does. I would like to be a person who read this and just laughed out loud and moved on to the next article. The rapidity of Obama’s response is, first off, a non-issue. It’s not like Katrina. But this is the part that hooks me, "President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war." There’s just a logic leap in that that’s beyond my grasp. I don’t get it. Then here come the nasties, "He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of 9/11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war." Obama doesn’t think that! I don’t think that! You don’t think that! What the hell is he talking about? See, it still gets to me…
[…] I mentioned earlier, Cheney’s statement makes no sense. Sullivan is right to call Mike Allen’s hand on […]